Harry Potter & the Lesbians He Never Noticed At Hogwarts
by JoBethMegAmy. my homegirls
Summary: Unconnected Rizzles ONESHOTS set at Hogwarts, brought to you by tumblr prompts. Harry Potter/Rizzoli & Isles fans, come revel in the random!
1. Fighting Prejudice

**A/N:** So in my tumblr travels, I came across some fun Hogwarts-themed oneshot prompts. Once upon a time I had really wanted to write a Rizzles fic set in the Harry Potter universe, but I've long since lost the drive/energy to do it. These prompts are short and sweet, though, and I'm having a lot of fun with them so I thought I'd share :) enjoy the silliness!

 **Prompt** : _we're in between classes, and we both hear a fourth year calling a first year a mudblood, and neither of us are having any of that prejudiced bullshit. unfortunately, my impulse was to hex them, and yours was to punch them in the face, and my jelly-legs curse hit you instead, i'm really sorry, and we both are probably getting detention now, but hey, plus side, you're kind of cute_

* * *

Jane had woken up in the hospital wing twice before, once after an aggressive Quidditch match and once after missing an ambitious jump onto a moving staircase. In neither instance could she recall someone waiting for her as pretty as the girl sitting by her bed, apology etched all over her expression.

Too winded to think of something suave, Jane's opener was, "Do I know you?"

"We haven't formally met, no. I'm Maura Isles - fourth year Hufflepuff."

"Jane Rizzoli, Gryffindor. Fourth year. Um…what are you doing by my bedside, or do I have a fan club that I don't know about?"

Maura looked uncomfortable enough already, and Jane noted that teasing her further probably wouldn't be a good idea. "I'm afraid I'm the reason you're in here."

"Excuse me?"

"I was having a bad day and I was on my way to class and heard a boy calling someone a - a mud…you know. And normally violence is never, ever my initial response to anything, but as I said I was already testy and without even stopping to think what I was doing, I shot a curse at him. But," she allowed herself a nervous chuckle, "you got there first."

"I guess I still have some learnin' left to do, because at this point, it's still faster for my fist to make a point than to think of a spell and get my wand."

Maura laughed again. "Right, well, um… the problem is you were SO fast that my spell couldn't reach him in time, and it got you instead because you hit him to the floor."

"Ohhh…" It was all coming back to her now and she couldn't help laughing. "So you hear a bully and your first instinct is to use the jelly legs jinx?"

"I've never attacked someone before," seemed like a strange thing to say while smiling, but she couldn't help returning the most beautiful grin she'd ever seen. "And I'd just been reading about it, so it was fresh on my mind."

"I see. Well you must be mighty powerful to have conjured a jinx like that strong enough to knock me out."

"Oh, a jelly-legs jinx couldn't knock someone out," Maura said. "I was trying to remember the counter-curse but you were…trying to walk it off, I assume?"

"Yeah that was dumb, wasn't it? I'm sure the Weasley twins will get mileage out of that one for a while."

"Who?"

"Never mind. You were saying?"

"Right, well, you had just made it to the corner of the hallway, but Peeves was coming around the other side carrying a shield he'd stolen from one of the Knights by the Great Hall. I don't know what he was planning on doing with it, but I believe it was an accident that you two bumped into each other and he smacked you so hard in the head you lost consciousness."

Jane was laughing again. "Oh, man! I'm just sorry I didn't see that, it sounds hilarious."

"Well, maybe sometime I can arrange to be hit in the face with a large piece of medieval weaponry, and you could watch."

Jane clicked her tongue. "I dunno, that might be a shame. It's a nice face."

Maura blushed, trying and failing to fight off a smile. "Um, thank you.

Yours is too - your face. It's nice."

Surely there must have been a good flirtatious way to respond to that, but Jane's headache was preventing her from coming up with one. Something else had come to mind, and though it was a little somber, she said, "Thanks for not just standing by when that kid used that word, by the way. I'm sure we'll both have detention but he'll get off Scot-free. I hate that."

"It is unjust."

"You a muggle-born?"

"I actually don't know. I was adopted by purebloods, and they've never disclosed my blood status to me. They did, however, raise me with a certain amount of principle, and taught me never to let prejudice go unaddressed."

"Well you addressed it today all right," Jane chuckled.

"What about you?"

"Well, I like to see justice done, too - but I'm half and half myself. Muggle father, squib mother. She was hoping I could go to the academy in Salem because it's so close to home, but they only accept purebloods. I'm still not sure how I got on the radar for this place, but I like it. Hey you're not a local either, are you? Or is my head injury so bad it's preventing me from detecting an accent?"

"Your accent detection is fine," Maura assured her. "I was mostly raised in France. My father wanted me to go to Beauxbatons, but mother's an alum of Hogwarts and felt very strongly about my coming here."

"Was she a Hufflepuff too?"

"Oh gosh, no," Maura laughed. "Ravenclaw. She was disappointed I didn't end up there myself, but I've come to terms with my house."

"I don't think Hufflepuffs get a fair shake," Jane said, sitting up a bit more. "Clearly you're skilled, or your curse wouldn't have led me to the hospital wing. And in my opinion, Hufflepuff's got all the cutest girls." She was glad to see Maura looked pleased by this assessment; shy but flattered. "Have you got any plans this Saturday?"

The moment was ruined when out of the corner of her eye, Jane thought she saw an overgrown bat swoop into the hospital wing. The reality was worse: it was her potions master, whose student she had attacked. "I cannot speak for Miss Isles but you, Miss Rizzoli, will be spending your Saturday cleaning out the student stores in my classroom without magic."

"Sir, yes sir."

He gave her a withering glare for her cheek, and was just turning away to leave when Maura got to her feet. "Sir? Is that student from your house being punished for the epithet he used?"

"Sticks and stones, Miss Isles. Furthermore it is not your business to know."

"Well then sir, you should be putting me in detention as well. I tried to curse your student but Jane literally beat me to the punch and I hit her instead."

Snape fought off a smirk. "Far be it from me to deny retribution to a student who admits a grave error. Dear me, it's been some time since a Hufflepuff has caused any trouble that I can recall. I shall have to speak with your head of house about a suitable way for you to spend your detention on Sunday."

"What'd you turn yourself in for?" Jane asked after Snape left, dumbfounded.

Maura sat back down, blushing and averting her gaze. "I suppose it was naive to think he'd put me in Saturday detention with you."

Jane grinned. "You know we could just do something together on Saturday night, right?"

"Well of course I'm realizing that now," Maura laughed. "What can I say? I got distracted. Gryffindor has cute girls too."

"Yeah?"

Maura was too pleased by the reciprocity of eagerness to be embarrassed. Still: "Mm-hm. Yeah, when I see that Angelina Johnson on the field-"

"Shut up!"


	2. Blast-Ended Meetcute

_**A/N *REMINDER*:**_ This is a collection of _**ONESHOTS**_ , not a continuous story. I'm doing that this way because it will keep me from starting something I won't finish. A while ago I wanted to do a multi-chap rizzles story set in this universe, and maybe someday I'll manage it. I need baby steps, and these are them - I'm having a lot of fun, so I hope you are too! Thanks for reading!

 _Prompt_ : "Um, i don't know you, but you are headed right towards the grounds, and i don't have time to explain that i accidentally let all the blast-ended skrewts out of their cages, stop asking questions, you need to RUN"

* * *

Sundays were Maura's favorite day of the week. Students were usually milling all over the grounds on Saturday, celebrating the start of the weekend; by Sunday afternoon many had resignedly retreated to the library or the dormitories to finish up homework. Maura preferred to do most of hers during the week and finish up on Saturday, where she could reliably have a lot of space in the library to herself.

Sundays were for recreation, and today she had decided to take her rarely-touched Firebolt for some practice flying near the forbidden forest. The broom had been a gift from her grandmother who somehow always seemed to know what was popular but didn't keep up with her granddaughter - who would have much preferred a set of brass scales. It seemed rude not to give the broom a try, even though Maura had no interest in using it for sporting or traveling purposes.

She had just sat down to read some more of "Quidditch Through the Ages" on the usually-quiet edge of the woods, when she heard a loud scream. Taken aback, she stood up with her wand in hand to see a brunette racing towards her, long limbs flailing rather ungracefully.

"What on earth–"

The girl grabbed her by the arm and kept up the pace, yelling, "DON'T LOOK BACK KEEP RUNNING EVERYTHING'S FINE HAHAHA."

Too bewildered to even bother stopping, Maura asked, "Who are you and what in Merlin's name are we running from?" Nothing from the forest ever wandered out of the safety of the trees, and unless this girl was wildly unstable (which admittedly seemed like a possibility) she never would've gone in there to agitate something enough to chase her.

"The name's Jane Rizzoli and we're running from Skrewts!"

"What?"

"Blast-ended skrewts!"

"Have you been confounded? There's no such thing!"

"No such thing! Ho, ho, you're cute!"

"Really, now!" Maura balked, digging her feet in for a halt. Jane looked at her, aghast. "Have you been jinxed? Did you try some of the mushrooms by the north edge of the forest?"

"Do you not take Care of Magical Creatures?"

"No; magizoology holds no interest or relevance for me."

Jane grabbed her hand and started to run again. "Okay well Hagrid created these hybrid monsters last year that are some of the most ghastly things to ever exist on this earth, and I may or may not have been inadvertently responsible for unleashing a pack of adolescent ones and they're headed right this way."

"Are they dangerous? I left my Firebolt back there, should I-"

"A broomstick?! Why in the name of Willow Rosenberg didn't you mention that before?! Accio Firebolt!"

"Well, I'm not usually one for flying-"

"Rich kids buying nice crap they don't need just so people know they're rich," Jane muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

The muttering made it hard to hear, but so did the sound of the herd gaining on them, composed of what Maura could only assume were the blast-ended skrewts. Her Firebolt was flying above the animals, just narrowly missing a blast of fire as one of the skrewts propelled itself forward.

"Never mind, just hang on!" Jane said. She jumped on the broom as it flew past, pulling Maura on after her. Maura heard an extremely unattractive shriek escape her as the skrewt in front blasted forward again - but it missed them by a wide margin as Jane vaulted towards the sky.

"Holy Moses!" she crowed. "This thing flies like a dream!"

"I'm sure my grandmother will be thrilled to hear it," Maura said, her grip tightening around Jane's waist as she flew them higher. "Could we maybe get a little closer back to the ground again, please?"

Jane dutifully brought them down a bit, then headed for the castle. "Is your grandma really into broom culture or something?"

"Not so much as she likes to keep on top of popular trends," Maura said. "She gave this to me without even asking if I'd like one, which I don't because I don't play Quidditch and I don't fancy them for travel, either."

"Yeah, I figured that second part," Jane chuckled, trying to shift so Maura's arms wouldn't feel quite so restrictive around her. "So do you just like to take it out for some air now and then? Seems like a waste to keep a broom like this closed up in a box all the time."

"I know. I'm trying to familiarize myself with it. That's why I've checked out all the library's books on Quidditch and-"

"Books!" Jane laughed, swooping towards the castle. "You can't teach yourself how to fly by reading books, you gotta give it a go on your own! Didn't Madam Hooch teach you anything?"

"Yes, she taught me that riding is intuitive and I don't have the–AAH!"

She yelled as Jane made a short dive, coming up on Professor McGonagall's office. It appeared to Maura as though the professor was trying to pretend she couldn't see them; Jane waved and each time she moved to get out of McGonagall's peripheral vision, the professor shifted in her chair just slightly enough to be able to continue ignoring her. She sighed when Jane knocked on the glass and called her name.

"You may wanna get your eyes checked, McG," Jane said when the professor finally opened her window.

"You may want to check that nickname, Rizzoli, because if I hear it again you'll find yourself in detention."

"Sheesh! Okay, professor."

"Now to what do I owe the pleasure of becoming a stop on the Gryffindor Casanova's latest date?"

"Date?! She wishes," Jane joked.

"What happened to your sense of urgency?!" Maura cried.

"Miss Isles!" said McGonagall, looking surprised. "I didn't see it was you hiding back there!" The presence of a student as serious as Maura seemed to indicate that no shenanigans were afoot. "What is so terribly urgent?"

"You know that paddock Hagrid had of blast-ended skrewts?"

McGonagall's mouth was a thin line. "Yesss…"

"Funny story, they do NOT like living that close to the black lake. The giant squid can reach pretty far with those tentacles, and he smacked one of the skrewts and they all broke out. And are running rampant near the forest. Just thought you should know!" she called as McGonagall ran from the room with impressive speed. "Wow, she moves pretty quick for an old lady."

"Should we go back?" Maura asked, looking over her shoulder. "There must be something we can do to hold those beasts at bay until Professor McGonagall gets there."

Jane redirected the broom back towards the forest. "I tried a freezing spell and stopped a couple of them, and I stupefied a few but there were too many coming at me to do anything really effective. All I could think to do was run."

"And scream," Maura chuckled.

"Right, and you were so calm when one of them used its fiery butt to launch itself right at you."

Maura rolled her eyes but conceded the point. "Ugh, there they are. I'm surprised they didn't go into the forest."

"We should send them in there, maybe the centaurs will kill 'em all, take them off our hands." Jane shifted to keep the broom straight; Maura was twisting around as if looking something. "Uh, what's on your mind there, Isles?"

"I was wondering if there was something we could levitate to fence them in until the professors arrive."

"If Hagrid weren't off on .. whatever business he's doing, I'd just go to the cabin for his advice."

"Does he keep firewood outside? I would think someone his size would have a giant fireplace with giant logs."

Maura's assumption turned out to be correct, and before you could say "wingardium leviosa" (but after Maura did), she has transported the logs to the skrewts and managed to construct a crude enclosure for them. "That's pretty good!" Jane said, sounding impressed. "But you seem to have forgotten the fiery butts thing. One fart fire and your fences are toast."

"Has anyone ever told you you have a way with words?"

"Why, no!"

"And they probably never will. What was the paddock made of, can we get it?"

"Steel, and no. The squid - which I was in no way taunting prior to this incident - started eating it when I left. Go figure." Jane saw one of the skrewts starting to smoke, and shot an aguamenti charm to douse it before any wood could get burned.

"Oh, good idea!" Maura said. "Why don't we act as an emergency water tower until the professors arrive? And why don't we do it from the safety and non-bobbing branch of that tree?"

"Do you get motion sickness?" Jane asked, steering the broom to the sturdy branch Maura had indicated. She looked quite relieved to sit on it, and Jane joined her. "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey must have something for that."

"I suppose she may; it's never been enough of an issue for me to seek any kind of treatment."

"Mm. So what's your first name, Isles? McGonagall wasn't informal enough to say."

"Maura," came the reply, as she calmly took her turn dousing a skrewt. "Merlin's beard, did you say Hagrid bred these things? I thought hybridization of such dangerous animals was illegal - and this must have fire crab in it somewhere."

"Eh, it's a hunch. We've got a good family friend back in the states who's pretty fond of magical creatures himself - I think he owns every edition of every book Newt Scamander ever published," Jane chuckled. "He'd never heard of blast-ended skrewts, and when I described them to him he said he thought they sounded like a mix of fire crab and manticore." She laughed again. "I still can't believe you didn't hear about these last year, I mean even if you weren't in class with them! Didn't any of your friends tell you about 'em?"

"No," was Maura's curt reply. She didn't have friends so much as classmates and suite mates, but there was no reason to tell a near-stranger that. To avoid further prying, she deflected: "What about McGonagall's Casanova comment, care to defend that?"

"She's exaggerating," Jane scoffed.

"What exactly is she exaggerating?"

"Heh. I wouldn't have thought it was in the nature of a Ravenclaw to like gossip," Jane said, flipping Maura's house scarf with the tip of her wand - which would have been innocent enough if she hadn't just been using the wand to spritz a skrewt and forgotten to end the charm. "Whoops!" she laughed as Maura sputtered, using the dry part of her scarf to wipe her face. "That was an accident, I swear!"

"I'll believe that if you'll explain McGonagall's comment."

"Why do you care?"

"I find you very physically attractive and your personality intrigues me, so I thought I might ask you out. But if you're a playboy or you only date boys, I won't waste my time."

Jane was stunned by the forthright nature of this answer, and Maura wouldn't have been so blunt if she hadn't worried that lying would lead to her fainting and falling into an angry mass of skrewts.

"Uh…well, first of all I'm about as interested in dating guys as I am in dating a blast-ended skrewt," Jane said. "And McGonagall is just being funny. She's uh… caught me in a couple of um, compromising positions with some girlfriends in the past."

"Where were you that a teacher would - never mind, I don't want to know," Maura said, although her imagination had gone into hyper speed painting a very enticing picture of Jane, sweaty and breathing heavily and STOP, WHAT IF SHE CAN PERFORM LEGILIMENS AND IS READING YOUR MIND?! "Girlfriends plural, you say?" Maura managed.

"I mean, not at the same time. I'm .. assuming you wouldn't be into that?"

"I've never given it much thought," Maura said, growing redder at the bait dangling in front of her mind's eye. "But I think for now I can say no."

She was relieved to see professors McGonagall, Grubbly-Plank, and Flitwick arrive just then. Grubby-Plank let loose a long, loud rant of swear words she'd have likely reined in if she'd realized two students were in a nearby tree.

They watched the teachers work for a while, then Jane said, "In case you were wondering, I'm not seeing anyone right now, and I would be interested in getting to know you better in a non-emergency situation."

There are some things you can't share without ending up wanting to ask someone on a date, and corralling blast-ended skrewts is one of them.


	3. Firewhiskey

**A/N** : _Hey all! The prompt for this one involved firewhiskey. Also, yes, I keep changing Maura's house because I think she's a good fit for 3/4 of them. Which means yes, I stand by her being a good fit for Hufflepuff. Hufflepuffs aren't afraid of toil and they like hard work, that seems like her to me! But I digress._

* * *

Jane blinked, waking up to harsh sunlight. Had she fallen asleep outside? It seemed she had, and it also seemed she has no pants on. Somebody next to her stirred, and Jane jumped, heart beating fast. It was Maura Isles sitting up, hair tousled and silk pajama top partially un-buttoned. Jane stared at her in shock, trying to remember how they had gotten here, and also pulling the blanket by her feet up to cover her legs.

Something in her memory clicked when Maura - seemingly unbothered by her state of dress - walked to the edge of the astronomy tower and leaned over it like she was going to vomit. Instead, a short jet of fire shot from her mouth.

"Huh," Jane said, also getting up. "Now I really understand why you're not supposed to sell this to minors."

* * *

 _The previous night..._

"Rubbish. Spin the bottle sounds like a rubbish game."

"Hey man, you asked what muggles liked to do at parties, and I haven't been to a muggle party since I was 12!"

Fred rolled his eyes and turned to look at his brother. "How badly do we really want to do this?"

"Hey, you're the one who said you thought your parties were getting stale," Alicia Spinnet pointed out. "I think spicing them up with muggle games is a delightful idea! Why don't we try truth or dare? That one sounded like fun, Jane!"

"All right, but we'll need to recruit some new blood," said George, scanning the room of Gryffindors celebrating their latest Quidditch victory. "I already know most of what there is worth knowing about you lot, and I'd wager we could get some interesting dares if we put our minds to it. Team? Everyone pick someone and reconvene here in 2 minutes."

Fred nudged Jane with his elbow. "Now would be a good time to cozy up to that girl you've had your eye on for the last, eh, five years?"

"I don't know who you're taking about, Gred. I mean, Forge. I mean, Weasley."

"You are literally drooling, mate."

"You are so full of it!"

"If you don't ask Isles to join us, I will. And I'll dare her to snog you."

"You do that and I'll transfigure your blanket into a Severus Snape body pillow while you're asleep."

Jane turned her attention back to the room, and saw Maura making a discreet exit up the stairs to the room she shared with Jane, Angelina, Alicia and Leanne. After a few moments' deliberation, Jane followed her.

Maura Isles was one of those kids a lot of people thought should've been in Ravenclaw - she was an exceptional student who seemed to prefer spending her time with books rather than people. She had friends, but even there, Jane was pretty sure she'd only seen them hanging out at the library. When they'd first met, Jane had found her a little off-putting; Maura wasn't rude, but she kept to herself. Angelina and Alicia loved sports, and Jane had instantly bonded with them over that. Over the years, she and Maura had come to a mutual respect and an easygoing friendship. It was easy to make one of her other suitemates laugh; getting Maura to laugh felt like a real victory and was one of her favorite things to do.

Jane hadn't realized she'd developed a crush on Maura until the Triwizard Tournament, when almost every boy in Hogwarts had made an ass of himself trying to ask Fleur Delacour to the Yule Ball and she had asked Maura. As George's platonic date, she had looked on with pangs of jealousy as she watched someone else make Maura laugh, make her smile that certain smile Jane had started thinking only she'd been able to uncover.

Fleur was long-gone at this point and though things were far from normal at Hogwarts these days, Jane was ready to try her luck. When she got to the room, she was surprised to see Maura had already changed into her silk pajamas.

"Hey...I guess this means you're turning in?"

"It was just getting a little loud down there," Maura said, surprised that she'd been followed.

"Right, right. Yeah. Um...are you sure you wanna leave the party though?"

"Why?"

"Uh...um...a bunch of us were gonna play a game and I wondered if you'd want to join us."

Maura couldn't help feeling suspicious. Jane was perfectly nice, but she'd never gone out of her way like this to invite her to a team party. "What's the game? I'm afraid I'm not very good at anything aside from wizard's chess."

"Oh! Well, uh, it's a muggle game. Kind of a silly, kids' slumber party game that we just thought might be kinda fun." She explained the concept of Truth or Dare, and felt emboldened by Maura's smile. "Whaddya say? Wanna give it a go?"

The smile looked a little sad now. "Why do you want to play it with me?"

"Well, the Weasley twins reckon they already know everything about people on the team - which is probably true," Jane said. "So we were each supposed to bring someone else in who we'd like to play it with, and I... I'd like to get to know you better."

Maura supposed she ought to be flattered by this, and she was, but the concept of the game made her uncomfortable. She was nervous imagining the sorts of outrageous dares the Weasley twins could come up with, and didn't fancy embarrassing herself in front of anyone - especially Jane. "It sounds like an intriguing game, and I think I might enjoy playing it with you... but not everyone else." This seemed like a safe answer; surely Jane would just shrug and leave now with no hard feelings.

"Oh. Um, does that mean you'd stay up here and just play it with me?"

This wasn't the response Maura had been expecting, and it showed. But she wasn't sure how to backtrack now. "Er... yes, I'll give it a go with you."

"Great!" Jane's first impulse was to jump on the end of Maura's bed, but she didn't want to be too presumptuous, so she dragged over a desk chair and sat on it backwards to maintain a level of cool casualness.

"Since this is your game, I think you should have to go first," Maura said. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare."

They both realized that dares probably worked better when there were more people to work off of; Maura scanned the room for ideas. "I dare you to…eat the Bertie Botts bean Angelina has been too scared to try since Halloween!"

With a dramatic sound of disgust, Jane collected the box which had been sitting in a place of honor on the windowsill for almost three months. Jane barely liked taking her chances with regular jelly beans, let alone these - a fact Maura had recalled with a small amount of sadistic glee. She felt a little bad (but still laughed) when Jane popped the bean into her mouth and immediately looked like she was going to throw up.

"Was I right? Is it moldy sponge?" (The girls had an ongoing bet about what it might be, though none of them had ever actually fancied testing it out.)

"No, worse," Jane coughed. "Buttered popcorn."

"What?! How on earth is that worse? Oh, what a letdown."

"You just wait, Maura Isles. I'm gonna write home and ask someone to send me some Jelly Bellies, and you'll try the buttered popcorn one and RUE the day you dared dismiss it as an innocent flavor." After dry-heaving a couple more times, Jane said, "Okay you're up, truth or dare?"

Maura deliberated for a moment, ultimately deciding she was wary of retribution. "Truth."

Jane wished she'd spent some time coming up with good questions; she was overwhelmed with the possibilities. She blurted out the first one that came to mind: "Are you still in touch with Fleur Delacour?"

Again Maura looked taken aback. "Yes."

She was surprised to see Jane look so disappointed. "Huh. You are. Cool, what um, what kinda things do you talk about?"

"I believe you are entitled to one question on your turn, and you've asked it. No additions," Maura said with a coy smile. "Your turn again, truth or dare."

"Truth–no, dare."

"No changing, you wimp! Why are you so curious about me and Fleur? And don't make something up," she added when it looked like Jane wanted to do just that. "I don't see what the purpose of this game is if you're not going to abide by the rules of half of it."

"For someone who's never played this game before, you sure have a lot of ideas about it," Jane chuckled.

"Yes, well, it's not exactly advanced gobstones, is it? Now come on, no more evading."

"Okay, okay. I asked because I was curious."

"That's not a real answer. I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave, Jane, c'mon!"

It was just a joke, but something about it really caught Jane off guard. Pussyfooting around what she wanted to ask was cowardly in its own way, and while she considered herself many things, a coward wasn't one of them. It wasn't like she was deeply in love or anything; if Maura turned her down, it could be awkward sure but it wouldn't be the end of the world. She'd been gift-wrapped an opportunity to do the brave thing and be honest, so why not woman up and get it off her chest?

"I asked because I like you. Um, I really like you. Which I know is weird because we've lived together for over five years and it's not like we've spent a ton of time just hanging out one-on-one but um… I don't know, I think you're really interesting and really pretty and obviously super smart."

Maura couldn't mask her surprise, and it looked like she was blushing. Her tone was difficult to read: "Oh. Oh, I see."

"Do you, um…do you still like Fleur?"

Maura was about to answer, but stopped herself and smiled. "If we're still playing the game, you need to ask if I want a truth or dare before I answer that. And I want a dare."

Jane couldn't help being intrigued and kind of pleased by Maura's playful nature. She walked over to her dresser and when she came back with a bottle, she sat next to Maura on the bed. Maura could see it wasn't unopened bottle of Ogden's fire whiskey. "I dare you to chug as much of this as you can."

They exchanged a look which communicated Jane had no idea whether this was truly scandalous for her or not - and if it was too much, that Jane wouldn't push her. With that reassuring look, Maura felt comfortable taking the bottle, using a spell to uncork it. Jane looked on, deeply impressed, when Maura chugged down a good amount. Maura eventually relinquished the bottle, and some smoke blew out of her mouth when she coughed.

Jane took the bottle back and read the label. Fred and George had smuggled it to her as a birthday gift, and she'd never bothered opening it because she'd been waiting for a good occasion. Under the name of the whiskey was a promise: "You don't need Liquid Luck, you just need Liquid Courage!" Jane followed an asterisk to the bottom of the label, which she squinted to read in the dark: "Does not reduce agency but amplifies courage to follow dreams, desires, and daring! Please drink responsibly and do not mix with board games."

Something in Blishen's whiskey worked much faster than muggle whiskey - made apparent when Maura pushed Jane against the wall and straddled her on the bed.

"I dare you to catch up," she murmured, fingering Jane's tie.

Jane's temperature skyrocketed; she felt like fire whiskey was pumping through her veins before she even drank any. Afterwards, she felt the most peculiar sensation: not a buzz, but a calming, like a warm blanket thrown around her shoulders on a cold day. It was the perfect touch of calm and reassurance, which then slipped right into engulfing brazenness. Here was a beautiful girl she liked, sitting on her lap, looking at her like she was a Fortescue sundae.

"Shit, what just happened?" Jane mumbled.

"It was my turn and I was going to answer a truth you asked me," Maura said, her hands kneading Jane's shoulders. "Fleur is dating one of the older Weasley boys and I'm happy for her. We had fun, but we didn't click as much beyond friends. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"How badly do you want to kiss me?"

"More than McGonagall wants to kill Umbridge in her sleep-"

The words had barely left Jane before Maura kissed her, hard. It was a tad too intense at first, like Jane almost wondered if that was how it felt to have a dementor suck your soul out, but it improved the moment she started responding. Maura tugged hard at the collar of Jane's shirt and started to roll her hips. Jane moaned, letting her hands roam over Maura's silk-clad body. God, she felt amazing…

Neither knew how much time had passed when Jane had Maura on her back, holding one of the blonde's legs around her waist, still kissing her. They didn't seem to have been enjoying that position long when the door burst open to show Angelina.

"Um. Hi?"

"It's exactly what it looks like," Maura said.

"Uh…"

"She dared me," Jane said. "I mean, we kind of dared each other. With our eyes, you know? Eyes and whiskey."

"Ohhhh," said Angelina, eying the bottle that had long fallen to the floor. She was so stunned that she legitimately forgot what she'd been sent up for, and backed out of the room. "You know what? Imma just leave. You guys uh…as you were."

"We need privacy," Jane said, affecting a British accent for the last word. "Where can we go and how?"

Maura was already tapping Jane's head with her wand, muttering a Disillusionment charm.

* * *

 _Back to the next morning..._

"How did we get to the astronomy tower?" Jane asked, wrapping the blanket around her waist like a skirt.

"Your broomstick," Maura said, nodding where it lay propped against the wall. "I'd never ridden one before; I remember being very excited by the vibrating."

Jane chuckled nervously. "Ha… yeah, um, have you ever had fire whiskey before?"

"Yes, but not that brand and not that much. You haven't, have you?"

"Nope."

"Well, in my experience, it is what it claims to be - liquid courage. I've really liked you for a while, Jane. I wasn't sure if you … what you felt. That wasn't the push I was expecting to get me to open up, but if you didn't feel it-"

"Whoa, hey, I said I liked you before I even drank any of that stuff," Jane said. "We are on the same page. Hell," she chuckled. "If I knew that fire whiskey was gonna have that affect on you, I'd have cracked it open way before now!" She leaned in for a kiss, then said, "Wait. How familiar are you with the side effects of this stuff? Is it safe to kiss you, or should I be worried about dragon breath?"

"Does it feel like there's smoke in your sinuses?"

"No…"

"Then we should be fine."

"Okay then I just have one more question. Where are my pants?"

"Hm…if memory serves, you got hot and tossed them over the side of the tower in the middle of the night."

"Oh, Lord," Jane mumbled, pointing her wand over the grounds. "Accio trousers!"

Professor McGonagall tried really hard to ignore the pants with a Gryffindor trim that went sailing past her window.


	4. Hogsmeade Date

_Prompt:_ _i invited you on a date on our next visit to hogsmeade, too bad i can't seem to do anYTHING RIGHT. SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO SPILL HOT BUTTERBEER ALL OVER YOUR LAP, I PROMISE I'M JUST NERVOUS._

(I thought this idea was so cute!)

* * *

"This was stupid. This was stupid. This was so incredibly stupid."

Luna Lovegood came up to stand by Maura in front of the mirror. "Are you engaging in conversation with yourself?" she asked, putting on a pair of radish earrings. "I find those can be very productive. Or do you have an invisible friend present?"

"No, Luna, it's just me. Just me berating myself for my stupidity."

"I suppose even Ravenclaws are bound to enter a dalliance with stupidity from time to time," Luna said in her dreamy tone of voice. "What's troubling you? Did you walk into that nest of nargles by the library?"

"No, today's the Hogsmeade visit. And I asked Jane Rizzoli to go to Madam Puddifoot's with me. On a date. I asked her on a date."

"Oh," Luna said with a touch of wistfulness. "And she said no but you're both still going to Hogsmeade and you're worried it will be awkward so you wished you'd never asked."

"What? No, she said yes!"

Luna stopped talking to Maura's reflection and turned to look at her. "She said yes? That doesn't sound very stupid to me."

"I'm just…sometimes I feel like I'm not genetically set up for dating," Maura stammered. "And besides, Jane is so - well, she's so popular and funny and beautiful, what if she only said yes as a joke?"

Luna considered this. "Well, you may not be very popular but objectively I'd say you can be funny and you're quite lovely to look at. From what I can tell, Jane is a good person. She's best friends with Rom Weasley's brothers, and Ron Weasley is almost a friend of mine, and he's quite nice most of the time. So if you follow the logic it seems very unlikely that Jane would accept your invitation as a joke."

Surprisingly the conversation with Luna was encouraging, and Maura left Ravenclaw tower with a bouquet in hand and a spring in her step. She and Jane had agreed to meet by the library, which was approximately halfway between their dormitories. Jane was just late enough to allow Maura's insecurities to briefly resurface.

"Sorry, sorry I'm late!" she said, jogging up. "I was uh, I was doing some laps with Frost and forgot to account for time to clean myself up so I wouldn't show up in a sweat."

(This was a lie - she'd woken up with a huge pimple right between her eyebrows and had spent the better part of an hour trying to rid herself of it, making it worse, and finally taking Frost's advice to visit Madam Pomfrey. The Healer had a remedy which had worked immediately.)

"I'm glad you made it," Maura said, smiling brightly. She held out the flowers, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt. "I hope this isn't too forward - we've been covering courtship in Muggle studies, and Professor Burbage said girls often receive flowers on the first date. Is it too much? Should I have asked which kind you like?" Maura asked anxiously. She had enlisted Professor Sprout's help in choosing some particularly romantic magical flowers, but now worried if that was too impersonal.

Jane grinned. "These are amazing. Nobody's ever gotten me flowers before, even at home! Um, is it okay if we stop back at the Gryffindor dorm, though, so I can find a vase for them?"

"Actually the purplonium don't need to be put in water," Maura said excitedly. "According to Professor Sprout, so long as they're exposed to sunlight and fertilized with bowtruckle dung every month, they should last you a while! Ah… although you'd probably not want to have to carry those all around Hogsmeade, I understand. Let's go back to your dormitory, sorry!"

"Don't apologize!" Jane chuckled as they started to walk. "To be honest, I'm actually really glad you got me these. I mean, not just because I like them but because … well, I was really excited when you asked me out, but then I worried that maybe I'd somehow misinterpreted. I was trying to remember your exact wording, because I was afraid maybe you'd just meant you'd like to hang out as friends, and…" She laughed to cover up her self-consciousness. "Well, now I'm rambling! Sorry."

"Don't be sorry, I think you're cute! I- I mean I think it's cute."

They had just reached the Gryffindor Tower, and Jane teased her, "But you do think I'm cute, right?"

Maura shyly returned the smile. "Yes."

She then plugged her ears so Jane could safely give the password to The Fat Lady and duck inside Gryffindor tower. Fred and George hooted at her from the fireplace as she raced by with the flowers, and she squirted them with an augmenti charm on her way back.

For nearly the entire walk to Hogsmeade, both girls silently debated whether to try holding the other's hand. Neither did, because it felt like way too much way too soon. It was cold out anyway, and gloves/mittens weren't as enticing to hold as bare hands (yet). Jane had to work very hard not to make a face when they arrived at Madame Puddifoot's: it was exactly the kind of gross, lovey-dovey place that she'd normally avoid at all costs. It looked like an explosion of Hallmark cards. But she wouldn't ever be so rude as to make any demeaning comments about it when it had been Maura's choice.

For her part, Maura was mortified as a cheery waitress lead them to their table. She had just chosen to come here when she'd overheard Cho Chang raving about it in the common room - had she known it would be this grossly cute, she never in a Nicholas Flamel lifetime would've invited Jane here. Jane was way too cool for a place like this. Hell, SHE was too cool for a place like this, and that was saying something. As soon as they were seated and the hostess walked away, a handful of tiny pink and purple paper hearts fluttered and spontaneously fell on their table.

Several of the hearts got stuck in Jane's hair and she couldn't keep it together anymore. "Wow! This place sure has a lot of character!" she laughed, shaking her head to get rid of the paper hearts.

"Oh gosh, it's awful!" Maura squeaked. "I just heard some girls saying they liked it and usually I'm so thorough with my own research but I was anxious about asking you before I lost my nerve and that was stupid!"

"No, no, it wasn't stupid," Jane said earnestly, reaching across the table to take gentle hold of Maura's gesticulating hands. "And don't sweat it, this place is f…fine…"

She trailed off when someone dressed as Cupid started walking by tables, asking for requests he could play on his lute.

"Should we go to the Three Broomsticks?" Maura asked, pained by the expression on Jane's face.

"Oh, God yes," Jane responded at once, getting immediately to her feet.

Jane's attitude helped set a tone: she was roaring with laughter but not at Maura, just the place they'd escaped. Rather than feeling embarrassed, this helped Maura feel like she could laugh too, and they entered The Three Broomsticks in high spirits. Maura offered to pick up some drinks for them while Jane got a table.

It was funny how certain things affected people. Maura was sure that the many magical sights in Hogwarts had blown away a Muggle-born like Jane when she first arrived, but there wasn't much in the school that had similarly impacted a pureblood like Maura. Jane had whooped and hollered every time something new revealed itself, be it a moving staircase, a professor who turned into a cat, or a ghost floating through the dinner table. Nothing had ever really taken away Maura's breath like that before.

Perhaps there was some irony in the fact that what stopped her in her tracks was something as simple as a girl sitting at a table.

Jane had felt comfortable enough to take off her coat here (as opposed to Madam Puddifoot's, where she'd stayed bundled despite the hot interior as though her coat was a hazmat suit). She looked so lovely there, unashamedly wearing a very Muggle-y outfit: red and black plaid flannel with dark blue jeans, which Maura instantly declared the most attractive ensemble a person could wear. Jane was pulling her hair back into a ponytail, but missed a long strand that fell back into place by her cheek, grazing one of the deep-set dimples Maura had come to adore so much. She wished she'd brought a camera to capture this image, to be able to revisit it forever.

She'd thought this vision made her stop in her tracks, but instead she'd been walking to the table with the Butterbeers in hand feeling as if she were floating. Suddenly Jane was smiling up at her and she jumped, causing hot Butterbeer to slosh out of the mugs and onto Jane's pants.

"Merlin's beard!" Maura cried, setting the drinks down and reaching for a napkin. "I'm so sorry!"

"Whoa!" Jane laughed, reaching for Maura's wrist when the girl had unthinkingly been about to reach for her crotch with the cloth napkin. "I got it, thanks."

Maura mutely sat down, the redness of her face rivaling the color of Jane's scarf. Jane made quick work of the clean-up and took a sip of the Butterbeer, trying to be as casual as possible. When Maura remained stock-still, not touching her drink, Jane had to accept that casualness wouldn't cut it.

"Um, Maura? Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"You…you seem really nervous."

"Well, I'd rather you know that than think I purposefully spilled a hot beverage on you."

"I guess I'm just confused! I mean, you had the guts to ask me out and I said yes like, right away, and before we came here I told you how excited I'd gotten about it. What's got you so jittery? Is it something I did, or said? Can I do anything?"

Maura shook her head. "No, no, no, it's not you. It's me, oh gosh, you must think I'm so pathetic."

"You're somethin' alright," Jane said, smiling so as to look friendly.

Maura was silent for a few long, painful moments. This really wasn't the time to get into it all - how she'd been ridiculed and ostracized for much of her life because people didn't know how to relate to her or she to them. There were all the incidents of people saving seats for friends who never showed up, just so she wouldn't sit with them; two boys who'd asked her out during third year on dares; Professor Snape who somehow managed to make her feel low despite her high grades in his class. She'd overheard her own father bemoaning the fact that she'd been put it Ravenclaw, worried that it meant her focus was too much on her studies and not enough on other people. Luna Lovegood was her only close friend and Luna was younger and odd, she had no hidden agenda. By sixth year Maura had grown out of her awkward stage and boys had taken notice, but she was not confident (or interested) enough to care. Jane Rizzoli, though, she was irresistible…

Maura came out of her reverie to realize Jane's look of amusement had turned into one of concern; Maura figured she must look quite somber herself now.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "You're just so nice. I'm not used to people being so nice to me. It's second-nature for me to second-guess myself socially; I should really stop that."

"Hey, I'm here because I want to be here, okay? Here's a story. Summer after second year, I went home and my brother's school was having an end-of-year dance. My dad bugged me to go, and he said if any boys asked me to dance, no matter if I wanted to or liked them or not, I had to say yes."

"Why?" Maura asked, looking startled.

"Because asking someone to dance is intimidating. I'm sure he was rebuffed at a school dance once and it was hard for him and he wanted to prevent me from potentially causing that kind of pain. I thought that was pretty weak though, because he was prioritizing the boys' comfort over my own. I think about that a lot. I don't go out of my way to be a jerk, but I'm also not nice just for the sake of being nice. When you asked me out, I didn't say yes because I wanted to spare your feelings, or whatever. I said yes because I wanted to, because I think you're cute and you're smart and I'd like to get to know you better."

"Really?"

"Yes, really! Cross my heart and hope to die."

"Wh…what?"

"Eh. It's a muggle saying; never mind."

"Can I ask what it is about me that you find interesting?"

Jane answered the question because she knew Maura was honestly curious, she didn't just want her ego stroked. "You are still the only person I know who sits at full attention in every History of Magic class. Your study sessions have saved me from failing every year! But it's not like you study because you're worried about bad grades, it's like you're actually into the stuff. And I think that's so cool!"

"You do?"

"Yeah! I wrote home once complaining about my class work and my brother wrote back that if I could find a way to be bored with magical assignments, the problem was with me, not the work," she chuckled. "So I appreciate that you don't take a magical education for granted."

Maura smiled and finally took a sip of her Butterbeer. "Mm. Do you miss magic when you go home for the summers?"

"Yes and no. There are times it'd come in handy for sure, but I dunno, in a way it's also nice to remember my roots and it also keeps me from getting too reliant on magic. Practical skills are important too, and I think wizards forget that a lot."

"Practical skills."

"Yeah, like…" Jane cast about for ideas, then noticed a couple pieces of heart-shaped confetti from Madam Puddifoot's that were still in Maura's hair. "See, I could just take these out with a spell," she said, leaning across the table to pick them out. She stayed close, whispering, "but I think this is nice."

She gave Maura a short kiss on the corner of her mouth and sat back down. Maura grinned in return. "Please, be practical with me as much as you want!"


	5. The Mirror of Erised

_Prompt: we stumble into the mirror of erised together. we look into it. neither of us know it's anything special. we just see our reflections._

* * *

Usually Maura Isles had no problem concentrating on her studying. In fact, studying was one of her favorite things to do.

But that was before Jane Rizzoli had come along.

Maura remained ever serious about her studies, but she found her thoughts drifting much more than usual: she was either reliving pleasant memories (making out with Jane in the Quidditch bleachers long after a match had ended) or fantasizing about what might happen the next time they were alone (they were in different houses, so bedrooms were not an option. Where might they find an accommodating place?).

At the moment Maura was in the library, blushing as she thought of the possibilities. She was trying to pay attention to a study group for her Ancient Runes NEWT class, but her eyes kept going back to Jane, who was sitting at a table across the way. Every time Maura caught her gaze, Jane would do something like wink or blow her a kiss.

"Miss Rizzoli!"Jane snapped to attention at once, startled by the abrupt presence of the rather intense librarian Madam Pince.

"What? I mean, yes ma'am?"

"If you don't mind, the library is a place for studying," sniffed Madam Pince. "Not flirting!"

"Flirting? Who's - look, I've got my books here, I'm …I'm totally studying! Watch." She pretended to scan the open Transfiguration book in front of her, then practiced a nonverbal spell to transform an abandoned quill into a rose. "See?"

Madam Pince flicked her eyes over to Maura's study group, still looking suspicious. "I am very impressed," she said dryly. To Jane's disappointment, she took the rose with her as she walked back to her desk.

Jane looked around for something inconspicuous to transfigure. She settled for the cap of an empty inkwell, which she was able to silently transfigure into a tiny blue rose. She waited until Madam Pince was distracted by some other troublemaking students (seriously, what was that pint-sized Harry Potter doing by the restricted section?) and levitated the tiny rose over to Maura's table. When it landed on her notebook, Maura's face broke into a wide grin and Jane gave herself a mental high-five.

The moment her study group finally ended, Maura sprinted over to Jane's table to give her a kiss - thus ensuring they were kicked out of the library by the PDA-hating Madam Pince.

"It's sweet of you to want to be with me all the time, but it might be better for us both if you stayed away during my study sessions," Maura said, using a charm to elongate the stem of her tiny rose so she could stick it through one of her coat's buttonholes.

"Yeah, that's fair," Jane chuckled. "While we're on the subject, you should probably stop coming to my Quidditch practices. If I miss another pass because I'm smiling at you, Wood is gonna yell at me again, and it's so demoralizing getting yelled at by a fifth year… who is also my captain."

"I still think you should've been captain. You're the senior member on the team, after all!"

"Eh, Wood wanted it more. Besides, after practice tonight he'll be up for hours devising new strategies and I'll get to be with you."

"You want to sneak out after hours?" Maura whispered. "I might have a panic attack if I do that again!"

"C'mon babe, I'll make it worth your while," Jane said, giving her hand a squeeze. "Half the fun is in the risk that you might get caught!"

"You know, when I heard Gryffindors were brave, I didn't think it meant because they weren't scared of getting caught having sex. I mean, making out!" she hurried to add when Jane stopped in her tracks. "S-sorry, slip of the tongue."

"Why are you apologizing?" Jane asked. She was flushed, but looked excited. "That's kinda been on my mind, too."

"Really?"

"Uh, yeah! I mean we've been going out for a while. I kinda figured the only reason we hadn't…" She cleared her throat when they turned the corner towards the Great Hall, a passageway thick with students. "I just thought we hadn't done that because there's not really a good um, place for it. A romantic place, I mean. But yeah I've been thinking about it because I… I love you, Maura."

Jane's only regret about saying this was that it was actually the first time she'd said it, and it didn't seem like the romantic moment it should've been as a second year pushed his way through them to reach The Great Hall and Peeves smacked Maura with someone else's bookbag in passing.

However, it seemed Maura hadn't noticed; her eyes were fixed on Jane."You do?"

"Um…yeah," Jane said shyly, pulling Maura closer before another impatient student could push between them. "I guess I've felt that way for a while - I should've mentioned it before now, but…" She laughed. "I guess not all Gryffindors are brave when it comes to matters of the heart."

Jane waited for Maura to reciprocate or at least say something, but all she did was stare at her, looking dazed. Jane cleared her throat. "Um… d-do you?"

"Hm? Do I what?"

Jane thought this must've been a deflection, and starting to feel anxious, she took Maura's hand and headed into the Great Hall. "Do you… want to get dinner?"

"Oh, Jane! I love you, too."

Jane's face broke into a wide grin. "Really? You do?"

Maura's response was a long kiss, followed by "Absolutely."

They ate dinner together at the Ravenclaw table, sitting obnoxiously close together in the kind of way that severely annoyed their single classmates and/or made said classmates all the more anxious to not be single. Jane had Quidditch practice after dinner, but managed to convince Maura to meet her in the library afterwards. She kissed Maura goodbye but was stopped at the door by a familiar halting voice.

"Miss…..Rizzoli. Off….so quickly?"

She turned around, trying not to glare at Snape. "Something the matter, teach?"

His eyes narrowed; he hated being addressed as anything other than "professor" or "sir," and she knew it. "I just wanted to ensure that you were aware that the use of love potions on a fellow student is strictly forbidden at Hogwarts."

"What are you talking about?" Jane asked. Snape's gaze flicked to the Ravenclaw table and Jane's followed. "If you've got a problem with the PDA between me and my girlfriend, I hope you're just as concerned about it happening between my straight classmates."

"Public displays of affection are discourteous and disgusting regardless of the genders of those involved," Snape said, his lips barely moving. "I merely find it hard to believe that an academically gifted pureblood as intellectual as Miss Isles would find anything so attractive about a scrappy, subpar student such as yourself."

"You are damn lucky your job doesn't depend on student evaluations," Jane growled.

"And you are damn lucky that I'm the only teacher in this school who can recognize the effects of a love potion. My suspicions have been aroused, and-"

The Weasley twins swept by just then, each grabbing Jane by one of her arms and pulling her towards the door, away from Snape. "Sorry, Professor!" George called over his shoulder. "Quidditch calls!"

"We heard him say the word 'aroused' and figured we ought to bring you out with us," Fred explained. "Everything all right?"

Jane pulled herself out of the twins' grip, looking sour. "That guy really needs to get laid."

Snape remained where he'd been, smirking at the seed of doubt he'd seen planted in Jane's usually-cocky expression. He turned to see McGonagall glowering at him.

"Severus, I hope you aren't trying to interfere with the outcome of the pool?"

"An unfounded accusation? Typical. The romantic entanglements of Miss Rizzoli are of no interest to me."

"You've got five galleons against them! Why is it you always bet against young love? What woman hurt you, Severus?"

Snape did nothing but angstily turn away.

While Jane busied herself at practice, Maura got some more studying done in the Ravenclaw common room. She was sitting at a small table with Penelope Clearwater, a girl whose studiousness and seriousness Maura appreciated. They rarely spoke to each other except to ask about magical theory and spent no time together outside the common room. Maura considered her one of her best friends.

"Maura?"

"Hm?"

"Are you…humming?"

"I suppose I am," Maura chuckled, shutting The Standard Book of Spells, Volume 6. "I can't help feeling a little giddy. My girlfriend told me she loves me. And I said it back! I've never had someone say that to me before!"

Penelope's smile looked a little strained, but Maura assumed that was because she wasn't used their conversations veering away from academics. "That's Jane Rizzoli, then?"

"Yes! Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually meeting her in the library after her Quidditch practice," Maura whispered. "I know it's after hours, but it's so hard for us to get any privacy…"

Penelope's eyebrows went up. "Privacy? Do you think you'll…" She frowned when Maura nodded with excitement. "Are you sure about this, Maura?"

"What do you mean? Yes. We're attracted to each other, we love each other. What is it?" she asked, now concerned by Penelope's dubious expression.

"Well…one of my best friends, Percy, he's a Gryffindor and well, you just hear things about her. Last year, she had was in on a bet with all the boys on the Quidditch team about who could snog the most girls, and I hear she doubled the number of the person in second place."

"So?" Maura asked, though she looked a little uncomfortable. "She wasn't in a relationship with someone at the time, was she?"

"I don't think so, but it was a bet that lasted the entire year. She let some girls on for quite a while."

"Well that's - it's different," Maura said. "She's matured, and there's not something like that going on now."

"How do you know that? Maybe it's just a different kind of bet. It's probably just a rumor, but I've heard even the teachers have had pools about how long her relationships will last."

"Are you saying Jane's only dating me as some kind of bet? That's a horrid thing for a friend to imply!"

Penelope held up her hands in a sign of surrender. "I just don't want you to get your heart broken, Maura. Not by someone who was caught by several prefects and at least one teacher trying to pass off the sounds of her trysts as Moaning Myrtyle haunting other areas of the castle."

Maura pursed her lips, collected her things, and went upstairs to finish her homework on her bed. She read the same incantation over and over, not because she was trying to memorize it but because she was distracted. The concerns that had dogged her when Jane had first started really paying attention to her were coming back to nip at her.

She's so pretty, she's so popular, she's so outgoing, she's got so many friends, so many girls like her, She could have anyone she wanted, why would she pick someone like you? Unless… unless someone had said to find the shyest, quietest girl in her year and bed her. Who would be a better candidate than the girl so isolated and old-fashioned, only the ghosts kept her company? Who better to brag about scoring than the so-called Queen of the Dead?

These were illogical thoughts, they had to be. She was startled when her suitemates come up for bed; she hadn't realized the time, and hadn't yet worked out what to say if she were caught on her way to the library. Did she still even want to go?

Yes, she told herself firmly. This is silly. Penelope doesn't know what she's talking about.

That said, she couldn't help feeling nervous when Jane was late to meet her. Five minutes was no big deal. Ten minutes…nothing to worry about. Maybe she ran into someone and has to wait for the passage to clear. Fifteen minutes… maybe Filch was patrolling the corridors and found her and she's getting chewed out… Twenty minutes… it must be Filch; she wouldn't have set me up like this to get in trouble…

But then she heard something inside the library and her heart hammered; maybe Jane had set her up?

"Hey!"

"Jane!"

"Man, babe, I am so sorry I'm late. Wood is insane, I swear, he had us going SO late! I finally had to tell him I had a Potions exam tomorrow to study for so we could get outta there, and then Peeves of course was hanging out around the corner from Gryffindor tower, and … anyway, let's get inside, yeah?"

They had rushed over to their favorite nook, but Jane found herself pausing instead of diving right in for a kiss. She'd spent years rolling her eyes at weak poetry and lyrics that went on about a girl's beauty in the pale moonlight, but here she was seeing it now and she understood it. Her stomach felt twisted into pleasured knots at the sight of Maura in this soft blue light, waiting for her, wanting her…

But wait, said a small voice. Is this right, are you in her league? What's she doing with a ragtag half-blood like you? Okay, she doesn't care about blood status, but still. Is she the kind of person who'd be too polite not to say it back if you said you loved her? Oh, you're being stupid! Don't let Snape get in your head! Oh Merlin, don't let him get in your head when you're trying to be sexy, ugh, that's got to be the un-sexiest thing ever.

"Jane…? Are you all right?" Maura asked, noting her pained expression.

"Hm? Yeah, sorry, I was um, I got distracted for a sec. You look really beautiful tonight, though."

Jane pushed her concerns aside, figuring the best way to gauge Maura's feelings was to see her reactions. She slid Maura's hair behind her shoulder and kissed her neck. Unfortunately Maura pushed her back, admittedly not a great sign.

"What's up?" Jane murmured.

"I was just wondering… is it true that last year you won a bet against the boys on your Quidditch team about who could kiss the most girls?"

Jane's eyebrows shot up but her answer wasn't what Maura had expected: "Did you not know about that till now? Dang, I thought it'd gotten around to most circles."

"Well, I'm not part of many circles as you damn well know," Maura sniffed.

"Who told - never mind. Yes, I won the bet in a landslide but only because i was upfront about it with girls. The boys were too proud to ask outright, and they mostly stuck to Gryffindors. I did not discriminate house-wise; hell, I even had a couple of Slytherins offer to help me out. Sisters before misters, y'know?" she chuckled and Maura had to fight a grin. "What's got you worried about it?"

"Well, it's just one of my friends was sort of making you out to be some sort of … lothario or something."

"Yeah, I can see how someone might've thought that. But it's not like I went around promising lifelong commitments to girls, making out with them and then dumping them immediately. I dated a couple but for the most part, my line was 'hi, the boys on the Quidditch team think they're hot stuff and I'm trying to prove a point by kissing more girls than the lot of them this year, wanna help?' If I wasn't turned down flat, I usually got a peck and a signature from Madam Hooch's wife to make it official."

"Her wife?"

"Yeah, she thought it was hilarious. Also, we needed an outsider we could trust to be honest and objective when it came to tallying things up." There was silence for a few moments, and Jane asked, "Are you wondering why I didn't ask you?" She tried not to laugh when Maura nodded. "I really wanted to, but you kind of intimidated me."

"Oh, no…"

"I mean in a cool way! Your best friends in the school were the ghosts, how badass is that?"

"They're an excellent and underused primary source for wizarding history! I should've known people would find that off-putting."

"Guess you're not a fan of the whole 'Queen of the Dead' thing, huh? I admit that had me a little wary. But also you were wicked smart and crazy cute, and I kinda had a crush on you. I was worried about making an ass of myself; I thought you were way out of my league."

Maura put her arms around Jane's neck and pulled her in for a kiss, feeling much more secure. "There are no leagues, Jane. At least, not any we aren't in together. The only thing we're in right now is the library." Her heartbeat raced as she kissed down Jane's neck, her hand moving purposefully to the button of Jane's pants. "And the only other thing I want you in right now is my skirt."

Just a few murmured words in her ear, and Jane had never been turned on so quickly in her life. "Damn," she muttered. "Uh… you don't think any of your ghost friends would be lurking around here, do you?"

"No," Maura whispered, shifting one leg firmly between Jane's.

Right at the moment that Jane reciprocated by getting a grip on Maura's ass, an ear-splitting scream erupted on the other side of the library. Yelling a couple of choice expletives in alarm, Jane leapt away from Maura with her arms up in surrender. Maura grabbed one of her hands and ducked out of a nearby, little-used exit.

"What the hell was that?" Jane whispered in a panicked voice. "Does a banshee live in the library at night?!"

"Somebody was in there, trying to read a book in the restricted section after hours," Maura said back. "Not that I know that makes books scream from personal experience or anything…"

"By Tara's robe, I swear, I'm dating such a nerd…"

"But you love it. Don't you?" Maura asked, concern creeping back into her voice.

"Yes - ah, hang on!"

Professor Quirrell had appeared at the end of the hallway. Jane grabbed Maura and ducked into the nearest classroom, praying it wasn't where he was headed. It was a relief to hear his footsteps continue without pause until he was out of earshot; still, Jane stayed by the door a couple minutes to ensure nobody else was coming near.

Maura's attention had been grabbed by an ornate mirror on the other end of the room. Attracted by its lovely frame, she walked closer and was stunned to realize it didn't hold her reflection. Instead she saw herself and Jane walking up the stairs of the Three Broomsticks to one of the tavern rooms. Jane's reflection picked up Maura's and carried her over to the bed, kissing her, and–

Maura's eyes went wide; she stepped away and glanced at Jane to make sure she was still looking at the door. Safe. What was this mirror? Maura squinted and saw some letters at the top, but it didn't seem to be English - was it Latin? Oh, no, the words were just spelled backwards:

I show not your face but your heart's desire

Maura jumped when Jane appeared by her side. "Huh, nice mirror."

She sounded quite calm, leading Maura to assume the mirror's reflection wasn't showing her anything smutty. "What do you see?"

Jane raised an eyebrow at her. "I see myself? And now us," she said when Maura walked back in front of the mirror.

Maybe it was because she was calm now, but Maura was just seeing their reflection, too. When she took Jane's hand, the mirror reflected it.

Jane peered closer. "Is it just me, or do our reflections seem to be aging…?"

Maura smiled widely. This was a confirmation more affirming and beautiful than any she'd have ever known to ask for. "I see that, too."

Jane shook her head in amused bewilderment. Magic never ceased to surprise and/or confuse her. "C'mon," she murmured, leading Maura back to the door. "Let's try and make it back to our dorms."

"On an unrelated note, I've got an idea for our next Hogsmeade visit…"


	6. Amortentia

_Prompt: you are already dating someone else, and during our love potion unit, you get asked to explain what you smell, and of course you're gonna be smelling things that describe your partner right? uhm, but then why are you explicitly describing me…?_

* * *

Jane couldn't help scowling as she watched Maura walk past her compartment on the Hogwarts Express, holding hands with Cormac McLaggen.

"Don't pay him any mind," said George, noticing Jane's gaze following the couple. "He's nothing but a sleazy git."

"Maura's not stupid, though, she wouldn't get with a total sleazeball if that's all he was," Jane mumbled, sitting all the way back once the couple was out of sight. "How'd they even get close?"

"I don't mean to say I told you so, but you should've taken us up on our offer and stayed with us over the summer," said Fred. "You lose out when you go all the way back stateside for the off-season."

"That wouldn't have helped; their families both spent the summer at Maison Magique," said Angelina, naming an elite wizarding getaway in southern France. "My dad took me there to visit my grandparents in July. Mostly Beauxbatons kids, I met some cool blokes. Maura and McLaggen stuck together, though. They were nose-to-nose by the time I got there."

The Weasley twins whistled and shook their heads in sympathy. Jane stayed silent, restlessly twirling her wand.

"I…know you mentioned liking her before last term ended," Angelina said, which Jane had to laugh at because it was such a kind way of referring to the cartwheels Jane had done around their room while shouting _"I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it!"_ "Did you ever actually tell her?"

"No," Jane sighed. "We just…we had some moments, you know? And I thought they meant we were on the same page, but I guess we weren't."

"You must've written to her, yeah?" asked Fred.

Jane sighed again. "Yeah, but not a ton. I still don't understand how owl post is the most common form of communication for underage wizards; it's so slow! If Maura had a damn cellphone-"

"Not this again," George mumbled.

"-maybe that would've been different! There's more of an immediacy with stuff like texting. What was I gonna do, write her a love letter? When we hadn't even actually, I don't know, confirmed anything?"

Over the summer it had felt way too vulnerable to put down any of her feelings on paper. There were some conversations she felt ought to happen in person, or at least ought to happen with a quick exchange possible, which owl post could not provide. She and Maura had exchanged a few letters at the beginning of the summer, but it must've been before she'd gone to France because she'd made no mention of the trip and certainly no mention of Cormac McLaggen. Now what if it was too late? Maybe it had been stupid not to write more, not to be forthcoming about her feelings. She hadn't thought there'd be any risk, but that was stupid - of course a girl as pretty as Maura Isles would attract attention.

"If you want her to choose you, she's got to know you're an option," Angelina said, putting her arm around Jane's shoulders.

"What good's that advice?" asked George. "The choice has already been made, hasn't it? We don't want her forcing her way in there like a jerk. Jane, why don't you let us fill in Ginny? She's a master at the bat-bogey hex and could turn Cormac's-"

"Right, that's not what a jerk would do," Angelina cut him off, rolling her eyes.

"Well if it was coming from a different source-!"

Jane decided to let them argue about it, trying to distract herself by playing a game of exploding snap with Lee. Her spirits were getting a little higher until the trolley cart came through, and there were no pumpkin pasties left. They had been Jane's favorite wizarding treat since her first ride on the Hogwarts Express and sadly also seemed to be the only one that didn't transport well when she asked her friends to send them overseas. Buying one for the ride to school was something she looked forward to all summer, and when the trolley witch apologetically offered her a licorice wand instead, the compartment fell silent as if one of Jane's best friends had died.

Fred bought his usual box of Bertie Botts for everyone to gross each other out with, but Jane didn't feel like playing. "I'm gonna hit up the ole water closet," she muttered, moving to the door.

"Uncanny!" cried George. "I'm pretty sure I just ate a toilet water-flavored bean."

Jane was determined to look straight ahead rather than scan the windows for Maura. Her heart seemed to fly up into her throat when Maura leapt out of a compartment in front of her.

"Jane!"

"Maura, hi! H-hello. Hi."

"How was the end of your summer?"

"Good, good, it was good. How about yours?" She couldn't help glancing into the compartment where McLaggen was unbuttoning his shirt. "Uh… d'you realize your boyfriend is disrobing?"

Maura's eyes flicked over to McLaggen, and Jane frowned as they lingered on an objectively attractive body. Jane did her best to retain a polite smile when Maura looked back at her.

"I was helping him revise an essay for Binns and he spilled some ink on his shirt," Maura explained. "I guess he's choosing to get into his school robes now."

"Bet that's not all he'd like to get into," Jane mumbled under her breath.

"Hm?"

"Nothing." Jane had hoped Maura would correct her on the "boyfriend" label. "You guys, you two are…"

Maura folded her arms, looking a little uncomfortable but trying to sound chipper. "We spent a lot of time together this summer. He's quite a fascinating boy."

"Mm. Okay."

A short and painful silence passed before Maura said, "I was going to write you about him, but… you hadn't answered my previous letter and I didn't want to be a bother."

"What?" Jane asked, more sharply than she'd intended. "I answered your last letter! I remember because you mentioned these sisters who lived across the street from you and they reminded me of the witches in Hocus Pocus and I wrote out this long plot description and I thought maybe you didn't write me back because I talked too much about my mom's obsession with Bette Midler-"

"What's a Bette Midler?" Maura asked, looking confused.

"You didn't get that letter? Didn't Bass come back?"

Bass was Maura's owl. Jane didn't have one of her own; her parents didn't think it was worth the money or the mess when Jane could borrow one at school and use her friends' at home - which meant communication depended on them to start.

"He did, and he wasn't injured or anything, so I don't believed he was attacked in transit."

"Has he ever lost mail before? It happens to muggle postal workers now and then."

"He would never!"

McLaggen opened the compartment door, tired of waiting for the conversation to wind up. "There a party going on out here? Can I join?"

"Thanks, I was just on my way to the restroom," Jane said, shooting him a scowl. "Your girlfriend here ambushed me."

He smiled at the term, and Jane tried not to read too much into the flicker of discomfort (?) in Maura's expression. She composed herself as Jane was about to walk away and said, "Wait, I wanted to give you this!" She handed Jane a small orange box. "The trolley witch was short on pumpkin pasties, and she said I bought the last one. I remembered you really liked them, and I didn't want you to have to go without…"

Jane was touched by the gesture, and couldn't help a small smile as she took the box. "Thanks, Maura. That's really nice of you."

"No problem," said Maura, looking happy that Jane was pleased. "See you later?"

"Sure, yeah, see you around…"

* * *

On the night of sorting first years, students were encouraged to sit at their own house tables. Jane's eyes were on McLaggen most of the evening, and she almost gave herself a headache twisting (as subtly as she could) to see Maura's reactions when he winked or waved or puckered up. Once the dessert course arrived, he finally got up to go sit by her.

"Cheer up, mate," said George, flipping a spoonful of chocolate pudding at Jane. She made no indication that she was aware it'd landed on her cheek. "There's plenty of other fish in the black lake."

"My _life_ is a black lake," Jane mumbled.

Angelina frowned, cleaning the pudding off Jane's cheek. "Don't be thick, you'll be all right."

"Yeah, I hear McLaggen's gotten almost as many death predictions from Trelawney as Harry Potter," said Fred. "Maybe that'll turn out to be one of the old bat's accurate ones! I'm sure she's due; it must've been decades from her last one."

The three of them spent the rest of the night attempting to cheer Jane up, and she was grateful for the effort. She even managed to laugh a few times.

What really got her spirits up, though, was watching Maura and McLaggen throughout the week. At first they had been very touchy-feely, cuddly even, but by mid-week Jane thought she detected a change in Maura's attitude. She excitedly shared her observations with Angelina - Maura looked a little more somber with him; she didn't seem to like his arm around her as much - but Angelina warned her not to get her hopes up. Maura was a serious person most of the time, she reminded her, and maybe she'd found that PDA really wasn't her thing.

On Friday, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had their first Potions class together. Jane had barely managed to score high enough on her OWLs to meet Snape's standards, and several of her classmates were shocked to see her there. This included McLaggen, who watched with unflattering surprise as Jane and Angelina sat down at the table next to his and Maura's.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "Haven't you lost Gryffindor enough points in this room?"

"Nothing we haven't earned back tenfold with our Quidditch matches," Angelina said, blindly giving Jane a high-five. "Fancy trying out again this year and losing another spot to a second year, McLaggen?"

"Jane wants to be an Auror," Maura said, preventing McLaggen from responding to Angelina's bait. "Potions is a required course for that career path. She'll do great."

Jane was heartened by Maura's warm tone. "I probably only did so well on my OWLS because of your help. Thanks for being so patient with me."

"It was my pleasure."

Snape swept into the room just then, instantly silencing the group. He narrowed his eyes at Jane as he walked by, but made no comment about her presence. He instead drew everyone's attention to the cauldrons positioned in the middle of the classroom.

"If you have done your assigned reading for the summer, you will be able to identify the extremely advanced potions before you," he said. "Regrettably the use of many is restricted for students, but Professor Dumbledore is of the opinion that it would still benefit you to be able to recognize them lest someone's hand …slips. McLaggen."

"Sir?"

"Come forward and identify the first potion."

Few things gave Snape more pleasure than putting Gryffindors on the spot - especially jocks. He knew McLaggen was a capable, even good student once the year really got started, but his first few weeks back were abysmal as he readjusted from summer mode. He was a proud boy, and Snape smirked as he swaggered up to the cauldron and frowned. McLaggen leaned over it, giving it a stir and trying to smell it.

"Um…liquid luck?"

"We use proper names in this course, Mr. McLaggen, and furthermore you are wildly incorrect. This is not Felix Felicious; return to your seat. Who next?" he asked, his dark eyes scanning the room to see who looked the most nervous. "Rizzoli. This one should be simple enough, even for you."

Jane got up and McLaggen bumped her on his way back to his seat. She refrained from retaliating only because she didn't want to prove his point and risk losing them house points today. Clearing her throat, she leaned over the cauldron and almost laughed. "Unless I'm much mistaken-"

"Which is entirely possible."

"-that is a love potion. I mean, amortentia."

While this might've earned her a few points from a teacher who didn't harbor genuine loathing towards their students, Snape merely sent her back to her desk by saying, "Congratulations on meeting the minimum standard for competency on your first day of class."

"My parents will be so proud!"

His eyes narrowed again as Angelina laughed. "It is essential to use as many of your senses as possible aside from taste to identify potentially harmful potions such as these."

"A love potion, harmful?" McLaggen scoffed.

"I know stories about the effects of this potion that would curl your hair, McLaggen."

"But his hair's already curly, sir," Jane pointed out.

"It's…an expression," Snape said through his teeth, his lips barely moving. "Miss Isles."

"Yes, sir?"

"Come share with the class your observations of this potion," he said, gesturing again to the first cauldron. This was always a sure fire way to embarrass a student, and a sensitive intelligent type like Maura was perfect. "What can you tell us about it?"

"I know it's scent is unique to everyone who smells it."

"How so?"

"Well, it smells like whoever the person is attracted to. For example, I smell lavender and pumpkin pasties, and…"

She came to an abrupt halt, her cheeks starting to redden.

"What an abominable sounding combination of scents," Snape said flatly. "You may return to your seat."

Jane tried not to stare at her, then jumped when she realized Angelina was leaning indecently close to her. "Dude! What the hell?" she whispered.

"Just checking to see if you wore your lavender perfume today."

Jane stole furtive glances at Maura throughout the rest of the class. Her expression belied nothing but intense concentration on the coursework. Jane was barely able to concentrate; her heart was pounding so hard she almost worried it might lead to an attack.

When class ended, Maura leapt of her seat, cleaning her space with a sweep of her wand and all but running from the dungeon. Snape smirked as he watched McLaggen hurry after her, followed closely by Jane.

McLaggen headed towards the Hufflepuff dormitory, but Jane tried her luck in the nearest girls bathroom. Maura was indeed standing by one of the sinks, and as they stared at each other, Jane realized she had no idea what she actually wanted to say. She barely knew what to feel, let alone knew what Maura might be feeling.

Angelina's words came back to her: _"if you want her to choose you, you've got to let her know you're an option."_

Jane had finally caught her breath from running to catch up, but her breathing was still a little shallow and her voice shaky when she said, "Look, I don't know what just happened back there- and I mean for all I know, McLaggen grows lavender and really likes pumpkin pasties but …in case he doesn't, I j-just wanted to tell you that I… I really like you. I like you and I kind of wish I'd asked you out last year. But I also really like being your friend," she hurried to add. "I really, really do, and I don't want you to think I'm not interested in friendship. But you didn't seem as sold on you and McLaggen as he does, so in case you weren't and in case that stuff in class just now was about me, I wanted you to know that I… I am definitely interested."

There had been no change in Maura's expression during this entire speech. Her countenance was guarded, like she was fighting not to emote, and Jane wasn't quite sure how to interpret that. Silence loomed between them, becoming more awkward as it stretched on.

"Okay," Jane whispered. "Um, that was kind of a lot, so I'm gonna … unless you wanna talk about it, I'm gonna leave. Let you think about all that, and um…you go ahead and uh, you can ignore everything I just said if you want to. But come find me any time if you want to talk."

Throughout the rest of the day, Jane kept waffling on wishing she had a cellphone. The immediacy of it was something she craved, but on the flipside, she was sure it would be stressful holding onto one and waiting all day for Maura to text her. She asked Angelina not to tell the Weasley twins what'd happened in class; she was sure Maura was embarrassed enough without bringing anyone else in. Jane loved Fred and George, but they could be relentless when it came to teasing, and she wasn't sure Maura would handle it well.

When Maura didn't show up for dinner, Jane told Angelina in whispers about their conversation in the bathroom. She was just as befuddled by Maura's lack of reaction as Jane had been. It was a small comfort that McLaggen didn't look too pleased himself.

After dinner, Jane and Angelina had started their Charms reading in the Gryffindor common room. About half an hour into it, Jane heard a tapping sound at the nearest window. Even in the semi-darkness she could recognize that it was Maura's owl, Bass, and she rushed to get him. He deposited a small piece of parchment into her hand and took off right away.

Jane unrolled the scroll, detecting a light trace of lavender: "meet me by the Transfiguration classroom."

Without offering an explanation to her friends, Jane sprinted for the portrait hole and hurried off to the classroom. Her heart felt like it was creeping into her throat as she ran, and the feeling was exaggerated when she turned the corner and saw Maura standing there. She tried to act like she wasn't totally out of breath, leaning against the wall a few feet away from Maura and exuding the most casual air she could.

"So what's up?"

"I found out why I never got your last letter," Maura said in a small voice. "It seems Bass brought it in while I was at brunch one day, and Cormac took it upon himself to discard it."

"Son of a witch! Are you serious?"

"That's what he told me."

"How'd you even get him to 'fess up? Did you slip him some of the veritaserum Snape had on that table?" That prompted another thought, and Jane concernedly asked, "He never gave you a love potion, did he?"

"Not to my knowledge," Maura said. "He was quite charming over the summer, and really attentive in a sincere way. I'm not used to much positive attention outside of academia. Outside of you. And I worried when you didn't write back that I'd put you off. I kept waiting, and then I thought maybe I'd waited too long and it would be awkward to write you again, so I …I didn't. Anyway, Cormac talked to me after Potions today - after you did - he was waiting by my dormitory. He has no idea what lavender smells like and he hates pumpkin pasties, but he knows you like them so …so he asked if I liked you."

"What'd you say?" Jane whispered.

Maura continued as though she hadn't heard: "I didn't say anything and he got more upset, and he said he shouldn't have even bothered taking your letter. He's different here, Jane."

"He didn't steal my letter here."

"I guess that's true," Maura conceded. "But I mean, he comes off much more pompous here. He's cocky. He was polite to the Beauxbatons students we met in passing in France, but for the most part we were just focused on each other. Here, he's always trying to act tough. Thinks it makes him cool or something, I guess. That is so unattractive to me."

Jane waited for more, but Maura had fallen silent. "Did you like him?"

Maura sighed and shrugged. "I liked spending time with him. I don't anymore. And I'm furious with him for intervening in our letters."

Jane was already plotting ways to get back at him for that one.

"There are a lot of things about that that I find upsetting," Maura went on, "but one of the most frustrating is that he robbed me of time."

"Hm?"

"Time I could've spent writing to you, telling you how I was feeling. I write excellent letters, Jane."

She had to smile at Maura's never-faltering honesty. "I know, you're really good at it."

"No, I mean…" Maura stepped closer, fidgeting while trying to look seductive at the same time. "I write really good romantic letters."

Jane's eyebrows shot up and her throat went dry. "Oh?"

Maura nodded. "I'd started to think about what I wanted to say in my next note to you. I was trying to psych myself up to say I was really developing a crush on you, but then…"

"Then Cormac stole my letter and swept in, all tall and hunky and there in person."

"He was a distraction."

"So…so you still like me?"

"Amortentia doesn't lie," Maura said. "But I'd have known that without its help. I was going to tell Cormac tonight that I didn't want to see him anymore, but he beat me to the punch."

"I'll beat him with a punch," Jane growled.

"Jane."

"Sorry, too violent?"

Maura laughed, taking gentle hold of Jane's hand. "No, just inefficient. You could curse him and that way wouldn't risk breaking the bones in your hand on his thick head."

"Wouldn't be as satisfying, though," Jane murmured, forming her hand into a fist.

Maura brought Jane's hand to her lips. "Jane?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I kiss you?"

"R-really?"

"Yes," Maura chuckled. "I'd like to, if you'd like to."

She didn't need to ask twice.


	7. Prefects And Dungbombs And Baths, Oh My

_Prompt: we're both prefects and we broke up a food fight in the great hall, but it got messy and dungbombs were involved, and now we're both disgusting and in immediate need of a bath, and it's okay, we can both use the prefects' bathroom at the same time, i promise i won't look_

(btw, heads-up for a Brooklyn Nine Nine reference!)

* * *

"What the hell...?"

"Rizzoli!"

"Isles!"

"Get your house in order!"

"Don't tell me what to do! Get YOUR damn house in order!"

Maura dodged a large spoonful of mashed potatoes from one of the Weasley twins, which wound up smacking Vincent Crabbe square in the face. Jane saw a mischievous glint flash through the anger in Maura's eyes, and Jane flared up.

"You wanna go? Throw something at me, Queen of the Dead, bring it on!" When Maura did nothing but continue to glare, Jane said, "I'll even strike first!" and she grabbed a turkey leg and threw it at Maura.

Maura whipped out her wand and silently halted the turkey leg mid-air before letting it fall to the ground. "You'll have to wake up earlier in the morning than that, Rizzoli, if you want to-"

This time, Jane grabbed a handful of mashed yams, and Maura learned the hard way that a freezing spell was not very effective against less solid food. It splattered not only her face but her pristine clothing, and for several moments she was frozen in shock.

"I think you broke her," Angelina observed. "Well done!"

Jane wanted to laugh, but couldn't tell if Maura was still angry and thus if laughter would be cruel. Her face was covered by too many yams to be able to read her expression. In the blink of an eye, she magicked an enormous bowl of Brussel sprouts at Jane, where they pummeled her as painfully as paintball bullets. While Jane was distracted trying to fend them off, Maura picked up a spinach quiche, walked over, and smashed it in her face.

"How's that?" Maura asked, yelling over the food fight intensifying around them.

Though she was laughing, Jane sputtered, "Well I hate spinach and I don't love quiche, so..." She wiped the gooey green substance out of her eyes and tried to blink.

Maura moved close enough to whisper in her ear: "Oh, that's too bad." She ran her finger down Jane's cheek and sucked the quiche off. "I really love it." She winked before she walked back to her table, leaving Jane rooted to the spot.

The food fight had gotten so loud and out of control, nobody - not even Jane's friends - had noticed one of Slytherin's prefects coming on so strong to one of Gryffindor's.

Maura jumped when something wet was sloshed against her backside; she turned to see Jane holding the now-empty bowl of yams, which she promptly dropped as she walked to the Slytherin table.

"D-do you like yams?" she asked, her hand wavering near Maura's waist. "I could clean that up for you if you want."

Maura pursed her lips, trying to fight off a smile. "Big, bad, brave Gryffindor," she murmured.

They had been dancing around a mutual attraction for weeks, and this was the most direct Maura had ever been with her. Jane was so warm, she felt like she was on fire - which she soon realized she was. She jumped and looked around for something to douse her robes with, and then remembered her wand. She was about to put it out with a charm, but Maura had acted first, dumping a vat of mulled apple juice on her robes.

Jane meant to thank her, but then she saw a chafing dish at the floor near her feet. "Did one of your heathen students throw that at me?"

"Is one of those awful ginger twins about to throw a dungbomb?!"

Most of the teachers had filed out of the Great Hall before this all began. Dumbledore contended that a food fight was a healthy way for the students to exhaust themselves of nervous energy, and he was too absorbed in his magazine to pay much attention to the goings-on. The only remaining faculty were the heads of houses, on hand in case any of their students got dangerously rowdy.

"Oh, I think I've seen quite enough!" snapped McGonagall, leaning over Dumbledore to look at Snape. "Gregory Goyle just threw a chafing dish and the fire under it at Jane Rizzoli!"

"Don't work yourself into a dither, Minerva," he said, not returning her gaze but rather staring out into the melee with boredom. "Rizzoli may be muggle-born, but I believe after more than four years of magical education, she ought to be up to the task of completing a simple dousing charm - or are you worried your prefect isn't capable of such a simple-"

There was a small explosion, and almost the entire student body fled the Great Hall. George's dungbomb had gone off, a new prototype he and Fred had developed over the summer which was more powerful and painful than any other on the market. When the rotten-egg-smelling smoke had cleared, Jane and Maura were revealed to be the only students left in the hall. Both were trying to locate the dungbomb with the intent of vanishing it.

McGonagall and Snape approached, looking none too pleased; both appeared to have conjured a full-body of a Bubblehead charm, which Jane and Maura assumed was intended to keep the dungbomb's stench from sticking to them.

"I would have hoped for better behavior from prefects!" McGonagall said, eyeing the food splattering both girls' clothes. "Would either of you care to offer an explanation for this disaster?"

Out of devotion to their students and a desire not to be a tattle-tale, neither spoke at first.

"Miss Isles?" Snape prompted her.

"Well, Harry Potter started it by throwing a turnip at Draco Malfoy," she said. "But-"

"Potter, hm?" said Snape, shooting McGonagall an unsurprised look.

"That's only because Malfoy called his friend a mudblood!" Jane protested. Glaring at Snape, she missed the sympathetic expression on Maura's face. "If you ask me, Malfoy's lucky it was a turnip and not a hex!"

"Such tolerance in Gryffindor house," Snape said with a sneer. "If you truly believe hexes are the answer to name-calling, perhaps you would be better-suited for Durmstrang, rather than the office of a Hogwarts prefect."

Jane looked at McGonagall incredulously, and her head of house did not disappoint: "You would do well to ensure your students know the difference between name-calling and blood epithets, Severus," she said. "And that goes for you as well, Miss Isles. It would behoove you and Miss Rizzoli to learn how to better de-escalate inter-house tension."

"Yes ma'am," Maura said, staring resolutely ahead.

"Which class are you off to?"

"Defense against the Dark Arts."

McGonagall's nostrils flared at the thought of her students, especially the beloved Jane Rizzoli, being subjected to the awful woman posing as a professor for that course. "Yes - well, as punishment for failing to meet our expectations as prefects, you will both be one class behind your classmates."

"What's that now?" Jane asked in confusion.

"In case you have failed to realize it, Miss Rizzoli, the pair of you smell worse than a squid ruminating on spoiled beets," McGonagall went on. "Subjecting your classmates to this stench would no doubt be a dark art of its own, and I insist you both take this next period to bathe and cleanse yourselves. I will speak with Professor Umbridge about your absence; rest assured, this is a house matter."

Snape merely nodded his consent, and Jane and Maura turned to leave the Great Hall together.

"I feel like McGonagall kind of gave us a break back there," Jane said once they were far out of earshot.

Maura looked tense. "Normally the thought of skiving off class would give me hives, but I have to admit I doubt we're missing anything by skipping Umbridge. What a joke."

"What a jerk, more like," Jane scoffed. "We're probably on the brink of war any day now, and she doesn't want us getting any practical experience!"

"An utter embarrassment. I've taken to practicing spells myself between classes, since she's so useless. I even give myself homework sometimes," she admitted with a small laugh.

Jane chuckled too. It was easy to picture Maura holed up in a classroom, teaching herself hexes and spells on her own. She seemed like a solitary person, which Jane could only imagine was by design. After all she was a beautiful, intelligent pureblood in Slytherin; Jane was sure there must've been dozens of kids in that house dying to be her friend. Jane was tempted to tell Maura about Dumbledore's Army, because surely defense against the dark arts was best practiced with other people. But she wasn't sure how thrilled the others would be with a Slytherin joining the group.

"How come you're nice to me?" Maura asked out of nowhere.

"What?"

"Most Gryffindors wouldn't buddy up to a Slytherin if their lives depended on it."

"Most Gryffindors are stupid that way. Don't tell them I said that, though." She smiled when that got Maura to chuckle. "What about you, Isles? You're in Slytherin, but you don't seem to be a muggle-hater or otherwise a dick."

Maura laughed again, but this time it was sour. "You know what I am?"

"Hot?"

Maura stopped in her tracks, as did Jane, who looked horrified that the word had slipped out. After a few moments of painful awkward silence, Jane cleared her throat and kept walking.

"Do you think so?" Maura asked, sounding pleased.

"What were you going to say?"

Maura smiled, deciding to leave it for now and show that Slytherins could be nice. "I am ambitious, I'm resourceful, I'm determined, I'm intelligent, I'm loyal but prefer to work alone, I'm very hardworking and I take pride in my accomplishments. I'm also a pureblood," she added as an afterthought.

"So it's kind of like a rectangle-square thing," Jane said.

"A what?"

"It's like Slytherins and bad people. How all rectangles are squares, but not all squares are rectangles." When Maura did nothing but frown, Jane sighed, "this is why wizards need to teach their kids math. It's basic geometry."

"I get your intended point, I just think it's a flawed syllogism," Maura snapped. "You're saying that because you know me, you know not all Slytherins are bad. And believe me, I know, my house has a reputation. But with your analogy, all bad people are Slytherins?"

"Well...that's just a thing people say, isn't it?" Jane asked awkwardly. "There's not a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin?"

"What half-baked, prejudiced first year did you overhear saying that?" Maura balked. "You really think that every person who was ever sorted into Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Gryffindor has gone on to be a total angel?"

It was hard to imagine any Hufflepuff going rogue, but Jane had to concede Maura had a point. After all, hadn't Harry Potter himself said in their first DA meeting that the wizard who helped Voldemort come back had been a Gryffindor? She shivered at the thought.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "That was stupid of me, you're right."

Maura was silent for a few moments, then muttered, "You sound just like my parents."

"What?"

"My parents went to school here, but moved to France after they graduated. That's where I was born and where I grew up - and where I learned geometry, by the way," she added snidely. "I was invited to attend Hogwarts and Beauxbatons, but my father had just accepted a position at the Ministry, so we moved to England. All of that is to say, I grew up outside of the anti-Slytherin culture produced here, and I think my parents just took it as a given that I would be a Ravenclaw like they were, so they never discussed the houses much with me. I was so excited to be sorted, and wrote them at once to tell them about it."

"What'd they say?"

Maura chuckled mirthlessly. "I can tell you word-for-word, because the reply was so short: 'We are surprised to hear you are in Slytherin. Good luck with classes.'" She sighed and shook her head. "I went home for Christmas and overheard them arguing one night. One of my aunts refused to visit while I was there. She didn't want her young kids consorting with a Slytherin. That's how I found out I was adopted, actually," she added. "It came up in their fight. My dad implied my birth parents might've Slytherins."

Jane was stunned. "Were they?"

"I don't know, I've never tried to find out anything about them. I just heard my mother mention their pureblood status and then I left. I didn't want to hear anymore. Given my dad's comment and his feelings about Slytherins, though, I'm not sure they're people I want to know." She cleared her throat. "Anyway, that was the last time I went home for Christmas. I don't want to cause any unnecessary family drama just by showing up."

Jane followed Maura to the prefects' bathroom as if in a daze. Coming from such a warm family herself, it was mind-numbing to imagine Maura's could be so distant. Her mind was buzzing, trying to come up with something comforting to say as Maura gave the password for the bathroom ("fizzy lifting drinks") and turned on the nearest faucet for the pool-sized tub.

"Do you wish you'd been sorted into Ravenclaw?" Jane blurted out, desperate for the silence to end.

Maura frowned, undoing her robe. "The Sorting Hat considered putting me in there," she said. "And who knows; maybe if I'd been aware of the deep-seeded mistrust of Slytherins in our society, I'd have asked for Ravenclaw. The Hat could tell I was indecisive and said it thought I could..." She blushed, fumbling with her tie, not wanting to sound conceited. "It said I could really distinguish myself in Slytherin, like I could really be someone special and go far." That had been a very attractive promise to a lonely child desperate to make her neglectful parents proud. "Is it weird that I feel bad for letting down a Hat?"

"Are you kidding? You didn't let anyone down! Except maybe your dipshit parents, but they're dipshits," Jane said, getting Maura to laugh a little. "Come on, seriously. I think you ARE distinguishing yourself. In Ravenclaw, you'd just have been another brain. In Slytherin, you get to be this amazing, intelligent, unique prefect who actually cares about helping out. That food fight may not have been a great example, but most of the time I feel like you have my back. I think you change the way a lot of people see Slytherins."

"Aw, Jane."

"Hm?"

"That's really...that's really sweet!"

Jane tried to act nonchalant. "Yeah, well..."

"Take your clothes off."

"What?!"

Jane's eyes widened when Maura calmly unbuttoned her own shirt and took it off. "Get undressed. Did you forget we're here to rid ourselves of the combined stench of rotten doxy eggs and Stinksap?"

In all honesty, Jane _had_ forgotten. She'd been so swept up in Maura's history that she hadn't been paying attention to where they were going or why they were going there. It wasn't like her to get so preoccupied _and oh God is she taking off her bra?!_

Maura couldn't contain a giggle when Jane twisted away from her. "Are you getting shy on me, Rizzoli?" she asked, letting her bra slide down her arms. "Or is the thought of having to look at me disgusting to you?"

Jane whipped around to confront this notion- "you know that's not true!" - but quickly finished the full 360 because now Maura was topless and taking off her skirt.

"You weren't planning to bathe clothed, were you?" Maura asked. "I mean, you knew we were coming here."

"Yes, I just wasn't ... thinking this far ahead," Jane said, taking off her tie. "Because I'm stupid. Incidentally, the Hat didn't offer to put _me_ in Ravenclaw."

Maura laughed and walked over to the faucets (Jane pivoted as she moved to avoid seeing her), then turned on one that would leave a thick layer of bubbles over the water. "You were raised in America, weren't you?"

"Yes..."

"Hm, that explains your attitude."

"Oh, ha, ha, the American is a Puritan, very funny."

"What's a Puritan?"

"Never mind."

"Well don't worry, I'm not interested in making you uncomfortable," Maura said (though Jane strongly suspected otherwise). "These bubbles are very dense; you can't see through them. I promise not to look when you get undressed."

Jane took the extra precaution of doffing her clothes behind a large sculpture of a merman. Once completely undressed, she peeked around the side of the statue to make sure Maura wasn't looking. Maura's back was to her, and Jane nimbly stepped into the enormous tub. At the sound of the water shifting, Maura turned around at once.

"There, now was that so bad?"

"This just feels weird."

"Why?"

"Because I like you and I haven't even had the chance to ask you out yet and now we're like wet and naked and only eight feet apart. And no, I can't convert that to meters but you get the idea."

Maura was smiling, but didn't say anything for a few long moments. "So you like me."

"I...I wouldn't have said that if I wasn't pretty sure you liked me too," Jane said, already feeling her resolve might crumble. "Please, don't make fun of me, just be honest with me."

Another long pause, this time with a smile that was harder to read. "How well do you think you know me, Rizzoli?"

Was she about to extend a sultry invitation to get to know her even more? _Oh God please yes - God please no - this is exhilarating and terrifying and why am I feeling so dehydrated all of a sudden?_

When Jane failed to answer (from nerves but also because she thought it was a rhetorical question) Maura went on, "If you knew me well you'd know I would never make fun of anybody. And as far as the question of whether I like you, I'd say it took you damn well long enough to notice. I've been flirting with you for the entire year."

Although it was what she'd been praying for for the last several months, Jane couldn't believe what she was at last hearing. Her heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest when Maura swam closer. The water was lukewarm but she was starting to feel red hot - and, unfortunately, it showed.

"You're blushing," Maura observed. "I'm sorry, am I making you nervous?"

"I'm - no, you're not; the situation is," Jane stammered. "I mean, you're really cute and I don't imagine this is embarrassing for you - not that I looked," she added quickly, sure to keep her gaze fixed on Maura's eyes. "But you do look good. I mean, duh. I mean - oh, God..."

"You are so cute," Maura chuckled. "I mean don't get me wrong; on a physical level, you are sexy as hell." The fact that she could say this so simply, as if it was an objective certainty instead of a subjective compliment, was a little odd for Jane to process. Maura went on: "But your demeanor, that's very cute. And I hope that doesn't sound condescending; I mean I find it... kind of endearing. Given your conduct on the Quidditch pitch and the occasional bravado I've seen you put on, I used to assume you'd be cocky. A lot of Gryffindors can be cocky, though, in my defense."

"Yeah, well. Feeling like you have a moral high ground can do that to a person," Jane agreed. "So you watch the Quidditch games, huh?"

"I used to prefer taking the time to study, because it basically guaranteed that the common room - or any room - would be empty. But then I learned the Gryffindor team had a _very_ cute Chaser, and I decided I had to check out at least one game."

"Hm, Johnson? Bell?"

"Are you really going to tease me after I promised not to tease you?"

"I...sorry," Jane said, averting her gaze. "Humor's my defense mechanism."

"What do you need to be defensive about?"

"My own nerves, I guesss _sshhhhiiit..._ "

Jane had turned to look at Maura, who was leaning sideways agains the wall of the pool to face her. Maura had innocently let her elbow rest on the edge of the tub, letting her head rest against her fist, and this had resulted in one of her breasts rising above the layer of dense bubbles. After letting herself look a second too long, Jane almost snapped her neck turning it to look away.

"I'm sorry!" Maura squealed, bringing her arm back into the water.

"God, I'm sorry! I feel like a skeeze!"

"You're not a skeeze, Jane. If I was worried about the possibility of you seeing me, I'd be on the other side of the pool and not letting anything but my head and neck above the bubbles. And you'd be a skeeze if you saw my discomfort and actively tried to make me show myself. Would you be this skittish if you were in here with someone else?"

"Someone I didn't like, you mean? Probably not." When Maura started backing away, Jane reached blindly for her hand underwater. She skimmed Maura's waist before catching her wrist. "Don't go, though!"

Maura smiled at the gesture. "I was going to distance myself so I don't make you uncomfortable."

"No, that's okay, this is a good kind of uncomfortable."

"Hm. I didn't know there was a good kind," Maura mused. "Discomfort always makes me feel I've done something humiliating, or that I ought to hide myself away. What's the good kind like?"

"Well, it pushes you to do something. Something you'd want to do, but would usually be too shy or too scared to do."

"And you're scared to take a bath."

"Scared to take a bath with _you!_ " Jane said, joining Maura in her laughter. "See, bravery means different things to different people. Sure, for Harry Potter it means fighting off Death Eaters. I'll get there someday. Right now I'm working on the bravery required to be naked in front of a girl I like before I've even asked her out."

Maura's immediate response was, "Would you like to go on a date with me to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

"Yes."

"You're not worried about being seen cozying up to a Slytherin?"

Jane paused to make sure she gave an honest answer. "We'll kind of be like a Hogwarts Romeo & Juliet. Or, hm. I don't know what the wizarding equivalent of that would be. I mean-"

"I get the reference," Maura said, not unkindly. "Shakespeare was the focus of our literature unit in Muggle Studies this fall."

"You take Muggle studies?"

"Yes, I think it's fascinating. I'm not surprised by your surprise, though; I'm the only Slytherin in the class and Professor Burbage told me she doesn't generally get a lot of us," Maura admitted.

"Oh. Huh. I hope we don't end up like Romeo and Juliet, though."

"You don't?"

"Well, no. The play ends with their double suicide."

"What?! It does?! Why do people like it so much?! Gah...never mind. What I should've said was, yeah, I'm sure some people might give me some guff about going out with a Slytherin, but I don't give a flying bowtruckle fart about that. I'd be proud to be out with you, no matter what house you were in."

Maura smiled so wide, Jane couldn't help reflecting it. "Would it be a good or bad uncomfortable if I kissed you?" Maura asked.

"Here? Right now?"

"I can wait."

"No, no, now's...that'd be fine. That'd be great. That'd be-"

Jane shut up when Maura took gentle hold of her face. Her gaze dipped from Jane's eyes to her lips and back again, then she leaned in and kissed her. Jane felt almost suffocated by immediate excitement, overwhelmed by the softness of Maura's lips and the intensity with which her heart was pounding. The pounding was matched elsewhere when Jane instinctively brought Maura closer, pulling their bodies together. Jane was shot at warp-speed into new realms of pleasure, feeling as dizzy as if transported there by portkey. But within moments, the reality of what she was doing registered with her and she all but vaulted away from Maura, a stream of obscenities tumbling out of her mouth as she turned bright red.

"I concur," Maura said breathlessly.

Heart still beating rapidly, Jane glanced over at Maura and saw her smiling. "That was... wow. That was wow," Jane said. "Judging by your expression, I guess I don't need to apologize. That was just a ... a heck of a lot more than I intended to do."

"I know," Maura said, treading a small distance away. "I just can't wait to come back here with you sometime after you've been dating me for a while." She laughed when something occurred to her. "Maybe I can get some extra credit for my-"

"Don't say it."

"-Muggle studies!"

"You dork!" Jane laughed, splashing her.

"Well, as the Bard said: but soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is a dork."

That one got a genuine laugh out of Jane. She couldn't wait to see what else Maura had up her sleeves.

* * *

 ** _A/N: This is the only one I've been tempted to continue_**


End file.
